FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an enterprise system 100 for deploying enterprise software on Application Server (“AS”) instances 105. AS instances 105 may be web application servers, such as Web AS by SAP, .NET by Microsoft, or the like. AS instances 105 provide a framework to deploy a variety of business and presentation software packages for use in an enterprise environment. AS instances 105 are installed on one or more server nodes 110 and grouped into a cluster 115. The cluster 115 of AS instances 105 are provided to service work requests 120 received from client nodes 125. Cluster 115 may further include a message server node 130 supporting a message server 135, a database node 140 supporting a database 145, and a web dispatcher 150.
Each AS instance 105 may include one or more virtual machines (“VMs”) 155 to interpret programs providing the presentation and business logic to service work requests 120. These VM machines may be Java VMs (“JVMs”) compliant with the Java 2 Standard Edition (“J2SE”) standard, the NET framework from Microsoft, or the like.
Web dispatcher 150 implements a load-balancing mechanism distributing work requests 120 from client nodes 125 among server nodes 110 within cluster 115. Web dispatcher 150 may be one of server nodes 110 having the task of dispatching work requests 120 among server nodes 110 of cluster 115 or a stand alone hardware node. Work requests 120 are processed by server nodes 110 and may subsequently be provided to database node 140. Database node 140 offers up the requested data to server nodes 110, which in turn process and format the results for display on client nodes 125. Each AS instance 105 may further include its own dispatcher mechanism to distribute work requests 120 assigned to it among its individual VMs 155.
Installation files 160 for installing AS instances 105 may be centrally stored within database 145. To deploy each AS instances 105, installation files 160 are copied from database node 140 to each server node 110 via a network link. Once copied, installation files 160 are installed generating a file system and establishing AS instances 105 on each server node 110. When freshly installed, each AS instance 105 is deployed with a default configuration installation for VMs 155 and the applications and services deployed therewith. AS instances 105 may be operated using the default configuration installation; however, this does not guarantee that all available resources will be utilized optimally or that AS instances 105 will function properly.
Typically, once each AS instance 105 is up and running with the default installation configuration, a user manually configures each AS instance 105. Manual configuration generally requires a sophisticated knowledge about the hardware and OS platforms, as well as, the tasks to be performed by each AS instance 105. The user configuring a default installation configuration may need to determine and input a large number of parameters unique to each AS instance 105 in a time consuming and error prone processes.